Millencolin were formed in October of 1992 in Örebro, Sweden by vocalist/bassist Nikola Sarcevic, guitarist Erik Ohlsson and then-drummer Mathias Färm, who had been skating since 1987. The name of the band came from a skateboarding trick1 called a "melancholy", but changed to make it look more like a name.

Millencolin's first recording was a ten-track tape called Melack (a combination of the words "me" and "lack"), in the same summer of 1992 and it was through this tape that the band got to know Dan Swanö in Unisound Studios - the same studio the band use today, in fact. One copy of the tape was sent to punkupstart label Burning Heart Records, who wanted to release them, and the band agreed. In September of 1993, their single Use Your Nose was released, followed by Skauch, (a mix of original material and cover songs) and Da Strike (which was to later reach number 9 on the Swedish billboards) in 1994.

In April 21, 1997, the bands third album, For Monkeys, was released. The title was taken from an internal joke where the members would call each other "monkeys" and was originally going to be "Four Monkeys" until someone suggested that the title be For Monkeys instead. A three-track single from the album was released in the end of March.